A standard slicing machine has an input table that can be reciprocated longitudinally past a rotating disk blade to cut slices from a foodstuff, for instance a piece of meat or cheese, sitting on the input table. An abutment plate extending parallel to the blade plane is spaced slightly behind it by a distance equal to the desired slice thickness. Thus the foodstuff is butted against the plate then slid past the blade to cut a slice from it. On the other side of the blade the slices are picked up by a conveyor, or deposited on an output table. Such machines are described in detail in my earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,185,527, 4,217,650, 4,338,836, 4,379,416, 4,586,409, 4,598,618, 4,763,738, and 4,867,257.
It is standard to provide a servomotor for setting the slice thickness by positioning the abutment plate the desired spacing from the normally stationary blade plane. An input device, normally a knob or even a keypad, is operated to set the desired slice thickness and then the servomotor appropriately moves the abutment plate. In other more automatic systems the slice thickness is established by stepping the input table toward the blade plane a predetermined distance before each slice is cut, in which case the abutment plate is normally retracted somewhat out of the way. Obviously in such an automatic system the input table is provided not only with a holder for the foodstuff, but with drives for moving the foodstuff parallel to and perpendicular to the blade plane.
In order to prevent accidents the input table and blade are provided with shields that effectively prevent the user from being cut by the blade during a normal slicing operation. It is also normally considered good practice to set the slice thickness at zero when the machine is not in use to use the abutment plate as a blade shield, and in fact some machines even have a shield position for the abutment plate that makes it impossible to touch the sharp edge of the blade.
Nonetheless it is fairly common for a person to get cut using such a machine. Once the slice thickness is set, the plate is normally retracted and the blade edge is exposed.